The Battle Within-Hind vs. Hind, Pak vs. Pak

On 26^th February, 2019 nearly at 3:30 AM in the morning, whatever happened was before us as soon as we switched on our television sets.  The whole India was celebrating Diwali in the month of February-the month of “love”.  Crackers were all around and sweets were being distributed.  Why?  Well, we know very well, Indian Air Force had destroyed the shelters of Jaish on that day.  Several terrorists were killed and their deaths were in respond to the deaths of 42 Indian Army Men.

Whatever Indian Air Force did was truly commendable not only because they finally avenged themselves upon Pak but also because in the process no commoner in Pak was harmed, but only the terrorists.  I am also very happy as an Indian but is it the same way with each one of us?  Was everybody happy on destruction of shelters of Jaish or people were happy for the “revenge” taken by Indians from Pakistan?

These two nations are always at daggers drawn with each other but what is the cause behind it?

Let us go back a little bit back in the history.  We as Hindus suffered severe tyranny at the hand of Muslim rulers like Tipu Sultan and Aurangzeb who forcefully converted many of the Hindus to Islam, they plundered our temples, they massacred us by leaps and bounds, they destroyed us totally long back.  Then at the time of freedom from the British as well they separated from the Indian National Congress proclaiming that it was a mere group of Hindus (Jammat-E-Hindu).  It means that for more than a hundred years we are facing that kind of trouble between us.  Hindus and Muslims can simply not see eye to eye with each other till date.  Moreover, these terrorist forces paint Islam black further by killing numerous people in the name of Islam.  Eventually, today we have got a new problem in name of “Islamophobia”.

But is it worth being like that?

Of course not!  No Hindu is against a Muslim and No Muslim is against a Hindu either and not even in the past the things were like that.  The cause of separation in my eyes simply was that both the party leaders wanted to become the Prime Minister and obviously it was not possible to have two prime ministers in one single country rest the readers are wise enough to understand what I am trying to convey.

The same mechanism is used even today by the politicians in the present date and time.  How quickly we made our opinion against Pakistan that they must be attacked with an Atom Bomb without being concerned about the common men there.  The killing of our 42 CRPF Jawans was not undertaken by the commons of Pakistan but by the terrorists who unfortunately stay there.  How quick we were to speak ill about Imran Khan, without being concerned that he had just assumed the office as the PM of Pakistan.  Hardly 06-07 months had passed by since Imran became the PM and the Pulwama tragedy happened.  We criticised Imran government.

Now, you see I am not a supporter of Imran government and I am not even against the Indian government but let us just think like a politician.  Let us once step into the shoes of both Imran as well as Mr. Modi and reconsider all that happened.

Pulwama attack came into being, Indian Air Strike took place, Pakistan made an effort to retaliate (though failed), Pakistan blamed India and India blamed Pakistan-the blame game began!

Now let us discuss its aftermath.  Imran pleaded dialogue with the Modi government which was not granted.  Why? Because India was already sick of trusting Pakistan, the past is the reason behind.  Now Imran government decided to retaliate, however they failed and after that Imran received a severe criticism in India.  But just wait a minute, consider yourself as Imran Khan a politician who has been struggling to get into power for past 19-20 years and finally after a long period of toil came in power.  Had he not taken any measures, he would have suffered severe hostility in his own country just the same way Modi government had to suffer in India if no strict action was taken against Pakistan.  Public was against any discourse.  We saw them making an effort to retaliate but we forgot they released Abhinandan without fighting any further which actually was a sign of “co-operation” on the part of Imran Khan. 

I, once again would like to go back in the history and discuss a little about the history of Pakistan.  Pakistan got freedom from us as soon as we got freedom from the British.  Though it was considered to be a democratic country but since then it dwindled between democracy and bureaucracy for years.  Even today they have tensions between their so called organs of the government.  Civil government in Pakistan and the Military are usually competing each other for political power.  They have a war within the country to be fought against such anti-national forces.  Things are not easy there.  It is the military or army there that violates cease fire time and again because they are competing for power and they want us to feel their presence.  Also, one more point to be noted here is that it is possible that Pakistan does not give shelter to the terrorists willingly but, may be, they are threatened by them.  A yet another possibility is that the terrorist attack in India was a conspiracy against both India as well as Pakistan to create tensions between the new democratic Imran government and the Modi government so that the popularity of Imran government  could be brought down and we never reconcile. Similarly, in India the Modi government has a battle with the opposition to be fought within where the opposition is allegedly calling the whole Pulwama tragedy a political publicity stunt.

Air strike I commend but since now we have already avenged ourselves upon the terrorists (in Pak and not avenges upon Pak), I feel that now we must talk to each other.  We need to listen each other’s pangs as neighbors.  Peace is the only solution and to achieve that we need to talk and empathize with each other.  Terrorism has no religion and it is not a problem of India alone but it is a shocking fact that Pakistan has been hit by terrorist attacks more than India has-it is a fact and Pakistan also witnessed several terrorist attacks during 2018, then we witnessed Pulwama and also the Jammu-Kashmir Bus Station case in 2019 and now recently even New Zealand has witnessed an anti-Muslim attack in 2019 and seriously, something to be noted is that 2018 in Pakistan and 2019 in India were the election years and also 2020 is going to be an election year in New Zeal Land.  Isn’t it intriguing?  How I opine is that it is not Imran khan and it is not the Modi government either involved in any dirty game of politics as often proclaimed by various party leaders including opposition both in India as well as in Pak. Now we are in a severe want to sit together and talk.

The question now is-What next?  Well, I feel that Imran being new, being a fresh face in Pak, on humanitarian grounds should now be given a chance.  We gave chance to the previous leaders though we were betrayed but at that time Imran was not in the scene at all.  He must be given his chance.  What India and Pak now require is to talk.  They need to clear the air about the air strike, India needs to convey them that the strike was not against them but against terror which is a common problem between us, Pak needs to understand that and should confide in us.   The hatred which is flourishing between us cannot be overthrown in a single day, a months or even a few years, it would take time and hiccups would be there on the way but patience is the cure at present.  We need to introspect and also to interact.